‘Turn your gaze away.’” In the Sunan, it is reported that he said to ‘Alī: “O ‘Alī, do not follow one glance with another. The first is yours, but the second is not.”

In the hadith recorded in the Musnad and elsewhere:

“The gaze is a poisoned arrow from the arrows of Satan.”

It also states:

“Whoever looks at a woman’s beauty and then lowers his gaze from her, Allah will bestow upon his heart a sweetness of worship that he will experience until the Day of Resurrection”—or words to that effect.

For this reason, it is said that lowering one’s gaze from those whom one is forbidden to look at—such as a woman or a handsome beardless youth—brings three benefits of immense worth.

The first is the sweetness and delight of faith, which are sweeter and more pleasant than what one has given up for Allah. Whoever gives something up for Allah, Allah replaces it with something better. The soul loves to gaze upon such beauty, especially the souls of those devoted to spiritual discipline and purity. A tenderness remains within them that draws them to such beauty, until it continually draws one of them in and strikes him down as a beast of prey would.

For this reason, one of the Successors said: “I am no more fearful for a repentant young man when a beast of prey sits beside him than when a handsome youth sits beside him.” Another said: “Beware of looking at the sons of kings, for they present a temptation like that of virgins.”

The leading authorities in knowledge and religion—such as teachers of guidance and masters of the spiritual path—have always counselled against keeping company with youths. Indeed, it is related that Fath al-Mawsilī said: